Help Create a Happier Holiday Season for Children in Foster Care

Texarkana, USA – December is a month full of fun
holiday celebrations and traditions for loved ones to enjoy together. However,
there are many children in the foster care system across northeast Texas and
southwest Arkansas who do not have the same opportunities to experience a
joyful holiday season.

Due to circumstances that are no fault of their own, these
children have been removed from their homes and placed in the child welfare system,
many times far from everyone they know and love. This holiday season, CASA for
Children urges you to be mindful of all the children who are spending the
holidays in foster care, waiting to be reunited with their families or adopted.

“December is meant to be a festive time to spend with
your family,” said Brandy Eldridge, executive director of CASA for Children.
“Without the opportunity to share the holidays with the loved ones in their
lives, children in foster care are deprived of precious memories that make the
holiday season so special.”

In Bowie, Cass, Miller, Hempstead, Little River,
Howard, Lafayette and Nevada counties, 606 children were in the foster care
system last year. Every child in foster care needs someone to support them
through this difficult time. They need a CASA (Court Appointed Special
Advocate) volunteer to speak up for them and give them a better chance at a
brighter future – and the happy holiday season they deserve.

CASA for Children has served 419 children this year. More than 87 CASA volunteers spoke up for
children in our community who, through no fault of their own, ended up in
foster care due to abuse or neglect.

“CASA volunteers get to know the child and provide a
voice for them in court, standing by their side and ensuring they are kept safe
and their needs are met while in foster care,” said Eldridge.

Take this true story of Sam. As the oldest of three
children raised in a home with a mother struggling with substance abuse,
11-year-old Sam and his siblings were removed from their mother due to neglect and
separated from each other.

Sam’s brother and sister eventually settled into the
home of an appropriate relative. Sam, however, struggled with behavior issues
due to the trauma he had experienced, and the relative felt that they would not
be able to meet his needs. Thus, Sam was left to languish in care.

Luckily, Sam had a CASA volunteer who never gave up on
him.

She knew that Sam’s father had not been involved in
his life in many years. However, despite his mother’s harsh words about his
father, Sam always spoke of his dad in a very positive way – so she decided to
locate him.

Sam’s father told a very different story, explaining
that he had tried to maintain contact with Sam, but his mother often made it
impossible to locate them. He was excited to hear that Sam wanted to see him,
and they quickly arranged a meeting.

Today, Sam lives with his father and they have a
wonderful, healthy relationship; and he regularly visits his brother and
sister. Thanks to his CASA volunteer’s dedication and advocacy, Sam gets to
spend the holidays creating new, happy memories in his forever home.

Stories like these are the reason why CASA volunteers
are so imperative in the life of a child in foster care. They need someone who can
get to know them, advocate for them, and help ensure they are surrounded by
supportive, caring people even after CASA and CPS involvement ends.

During the holiday season, these children can be especially
vulnerable. Each year, more and more children enter the foster care system and don’t
get the opportunity to spend the holiday season baking, opening presents and
participating in other family traditions.

“We need more members of the community to step up and
get involved,” said Eldridge. “Whether you become a CASA volunteer, a foster
parent or provide support to a local foster family or a donation to CASA, you
can make a difference this holiday season.”

Consider joining the movement and becoming a CASA
volunteer. The next volunteer training class will begin in January. To learn more call 903-792-1030, or visit www.BecomeACASA.org. To make an end of year gift to the local
program, visit www.casatexarkana.org.

Comments

If you have information that's relevant to the Four States area, we will publish it for you, <strong>free of charge</strong>. Instructions are at the bottom of <a title="Hyperlocal Marketing* – the Four States News Advantage" href="https://fourstatesnews.us/hyperlocal-marketing-the-four-states-news-advantage/">this page.</a>

More About

TEXARKANA, TEX- Texas Municipal Court is offering an Amnesty Program from February 1, 2019 until April 5, 2019. Citizens with an outstanding warrant with Texarkana, Texas Municipal Court may come in before April 5, 2019 and pay the warrant in full without being arrested. To inquire about a warrant (Class C misdemeanor) with Texarkana Texas Municipal Court, please call (903) 798-3009, 798-3013 or 798-3790, Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Citizens can pay their warrant in full with cash, money order, debit card or credit card. If payment is made with a debit or credit card service fees apply.

Texarkana, TX – While many children eagerly await candy and cards this Valentine’s Day, children in the child welfare system wait for something much more permanent – a loving home. When children are removed from their homes due to evidence of abuse or neglect and placed in the child welfare system, they are frequently placed far away from their friends and family – forcing many of them to navigate the system on their own without a reliable adult presence to look out for them.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day the joy of the season, the magic of the season, the decorations, the trees, the family, and the gifts of the season will come to a high point for most families. There will be food, reunions, music, and presents. Afterward, children will ride new bikes, play new video games, and text their friends to report on their Christmas loot. By the time January rolls around, those same children will have forgotten many of the gifts, but they will return to school and complete essays and reports on how Christmas vacation was spent. Most will start off those reports with, “I got this or that for Christmas,” or perhaps, “We had ham, and cake and grandma came.” With all that will happen in the next couple of days, it is sometimes easy, even for Christians, to forget that at the center of all the celebrations is a small baby and the worship and praise bestowed upon that baby for his birth into the world. The first Christmas was very different than the ones we celebrate today. There was no Santa Clause, no gift giving among friends, no cakes, pudding, and family visiting. There were no bright lights and snowmen. There was initially only a baby in the manager. There was wise men, or magi, in the east who had studied the stars and knew that a new king was being born, but they would not arrive until sometime after the birth. The fact is, on that wonderful night that we now celebrate as Christmas, there were no gifts. It was a much different kind of Christmas for those who ended up celebrating. Mary and Joseph and a few others knew the significance of the birth. They knew that God was sending his only son into the world. But the fact remains that few others knew about what was going to happen. Imagine being one of the angels in Heaven for just a moment. You know that God himself is about to enter the world he has created. You know that after hundreds of years of messages carried, enlightenment given to the inspired words that would predict Jesus’ arrival that at this very moment Jesus was in fact being born. Those angels must have been bursting with the desire to spread the news. If angels sit in Heaven, or have a starting point, they must have all been on the edge of their seats or right on the mark waiting for the word to go. Can you imagine them leaning forward, pushing against the line like runners waiting for the starting gun to go? In Heaven, the celebration was in full swing.